Team Cream – Bagel Grilled Cheese with Heirloom Tomatoes and Thyme Cream Cheese

I haven’t made a breakfast grilled cheese in a while and to tell you the truth, I’m quite sad about it.  We all hear how breakfast is the most important meal of the day so why the heck have I neglected this lovely mealtime for so long? In order to end this cycle of negligence I’ve created a super yummy and easy to eat-on-the-go breakfast themed grilled cheese! Forget about your typical breakfast and switch it up by rooting for TEAM CREAM! chhhaaaaayeaahhhh!!!!!!

Here’s what I used to switch it up:

Ingredients

-1 everything bagel
-1 handful of  baby hierloom tomatoes (sliced in half)
-2 pads of real salted butter
-1 tsp of fresh thyme
-2 heaping tbs of organic cream cheese (or less if you’re not obsessed with it like me)

So my beef with bagel sandwiches is that everything falls out all over the place when you try to cram it in your mouth.  Every time I eat one of these I find myself with food all over my face, hands, and clothes, and quite frankly it stresses me out.  So when I started to think about how I was going to build the perfect bagel grilled cheese I knew this was going to be the first and most important thing I had to address.  

I finally solved this problem by hollowing out my bagel! I found that it kept everything nice and neat and afterward, my clothes didn’t reflect the image of one of the regulars of Tompkins Square Park.  To do this, I cut the bagel in half and placed it on my cutting board flat side down.  From there, I took a serrated grapefruit spoon and started scooping out the top and bottom of the bagel. 

Once I removed all the excess bits of bagel, I smeared a ton of cream cheese into the crevices.  I am absolutely obsessed with cream cheese and I completely admit that I’m one of those gross people that pile it on super thick and then lick the rest off the knife. Gross, i know.  But anyways, if you’re still reading this and not on the same page as me, put on as much cream cheese as you can handle and start slicing your tomatoes in half.

Now gently push the halved baby tomatoes into the crevices of one side of the bagel.  The more snug you can get them, the better.  You don’t want the front of your shirt covered in tomato seeds, now do you?!

For the other half of the bagel, evenly sprinkle on 1 teaspoon of the thyme leaves.

Since the cream cheese acts like a glue onto the other ingredients, basically just pick up both halves of the bagel and mash them together!

At this point you’ll want to put a pad of butter into the pan and turn the heat to medium high.  Once the butter starts to melt and spread out, lay your bagel in and sort of rub it around in the pan.  This will help the butter to spread evenly onto your bagel.

After about 2 minutes on each side the bagel should start to form a golden brown crust. Once it’s like this take it off the stove-top and eat it!  If you’re in a rush, simply wrap this guy in some tinfoil and take off. It actually keeps pretty well for a grilled cheese. YAY!

So do yourself a favor and start your day by enjoying a wonderful breakfast. And remember, mornings suck less if you involve some tasty food. If you start your day like this (as Midlake put it) “mornings will be kind to you in the future“. Go team cream!

xoxo,

GCS